Time for a little ego gratification?

Still being relatively new to WordPress and having recently discovered Freshly Pressed, I’ve been reading other blogs.

Some of the other writers often comment on how they are doing this for their egos. I suppose this is true because perception is reality.

But there are easier ways to stroke your ego. Tweeting your thoughts in 140-character bursts — telling the word you just had a bowel movement or what you ate for lunch — that is your ego at work. Stockpiling hundreds, maybe thousands, of Facebook friends: ALL EGO.

Showing up here on a daily basis and writing something that is more thoughtful and longer than a Tweet, but still interesting and entertaining … that’s not easy. I’ve been a reporter, columnist and editor for a long time. I can tell a story in 300 to 500 words better than many people can. Doing it here on a regular basis, in addition to my full-time job, seems a lot like work for which I don’t get paid.

So why am I doing this? Not for the feedback. Even though my newspaper is small, it has thousands of registered users who post hundreds of comments on most days and rack up millions of page views in a year. They are not there because of me, based on the results here. So far in 10 months, I have had 1,810 views. On my best day, I had 236. Readers have posted a total of 32 comments.  If anything, those numbers might be the opposite of an ego boost.

So why am I here? Well, writing is one of the few things at which I’ve ever felt I was any good. There are subjects on which I want to comment and other stories to tell that may not be a perfect fit with my full-time job. And the only way any writer can improve is to keep writing so I view this as worthwhile practice.

Who knows? Other writers have started blogs and stumbled into book deals and other financial rewards. Wouldn’t that be nice? Financial reward trumps an ego boost every time in my book.

So I’m going to keep writing and see where this goes. Maybe I’ll eventually even lure a few more readers to join along on the journey.